Short Fiction Beat: Nebula Nominees

Short Fiction Beat: Nebula Nominees

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imagesHere are the 2009 Nebula Award nominees for short fiction of varying lengths. As with previous award nominees I’ve reported, I’m again left out in right field. Haven’t read any of the short stories. I have read The Gambler, which I highly recommend, and Sinner, Baker, Fabulist, Priest: Red Mask, Gentleman, Beast, which I’d also recommend checking out. The titles alone make me want to seek out the Bowes and Bishop.

As for the novellas, the late Kage Baker may be a sentimental favorite, but the only one I’ve read is Shambling Towards Hiroshima. Not his strongest work, but you can’t go wrong with anything by Morrow.

SHORT STORY

“Hooves and the Hovel of Abdel Jameela,” Saladin Ahmed
“I Remember the Future,” Michael A. Burstein
“Non-Zero Probabilities,” N. K. Jemisin
“Spar,” Kij Johnson
“Going Deep”, James Patrick Kelly
“Bridesicle,” Will McIntosh

NOVELETTE

“The Gambler,” Paolo Bacigalupi
“Vinegar Peace, or the Wrong-Way Used-Adult Orphanage,” Michael Bishop
“I Needs Must Part, The Policeman Said,” Richard Bowes
“Sinner, Baker, Fabulist, Priest; Red Mask, Black Mask, Gentleman, Beast,” Eugie Foster
“Divining Light,” Ted Kosmatka
“A Memory of Wind,” Rachel Swirsky

NOVELLA

“The Women of Nell Gwynne’s,” Kage Baker
“Arkfall,” Carolyn Ives Gilman
“Act One,” Nancy Kress
“Shambling Towards Hiroshima,” James Morrow
“Sublimation Angels,” Jason Sanford
“The God Engines,” John Scalzi

HBO’s Rome to hit the Big Screen

HBO’s Rome to hit the Big Screen

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rome-hboA while ago E.E. Knight posted a nice review of the two-season run of HBO’s Rome, calling it: “about 25 hours of what I consider the best Sword and Sorcery I’ve seen in about the same number of years.” Knight goes on to point out just how this historical epic satisfies the S&S itch, and I recommend that both fans and those unfamiliar with Rome but interested in bloody good adventure go check out Knight’s review.

It’s been more or less an open secret that Rome was headed for a big screen follow-up for some time (Knight’s review is from June of last year, and a commenter mentions just this fact), but a recent article from Entertainment Weekly has brought the rumors back to life and appears to indicate that Bruno Heller has finished the script for the film, and regulars Kevin McKidd and Ray Stevenson will be back. EW erroneously goes on to say this is a surprise, since both Lucius Vorenus and Titus Pullo appear to be dead at the end of the show. This was picked up by nearly every other reporting agency running this story — apparently not many of these entertainment reporters have bothered to watch the entertainment they report on, as a living, breathing Pullo is walking down the street at the close of Rome, and the off-screen death of Vorenus is ambiguous enough to suggest he lives on in hiding.

Anyway, whether or not this item is strictly news is open to debate, but it is ‘good news’ regardless, and it gets me interested to see how the film will develop. Now, if only they’d do the same for Deadwood, a show that met the same ignoble fate as Wild Bill Hickok in the Number 10 Saloon . . .

Goth Chick News: The International Halloween, Costume and Party Show

Goth Chick News: The International Halloween, Costume and Party Show

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hcpChicago once again played host to the IHCPS, February 26-29, but to say the show as a whole was a disappointment is the understatement of the century.

This is the event around which my entire calendar revolves, and it usually requires a full ten-hour day to visit all of the exhibitors. I actually have a countdown clock on my computer ticking away the days to this most anticipated of events.

However, in their first year back after a two-year run in Vegas, this year’s show was less than 50% of the size of previous years. Gone was “The Dark Zone,” my most favorite area, which used to take up the entire upper floor of the convention center, and where Hollywood’s finest special effect magicians from the horror genre showcased their latest wares.

The exhibition hall itself was spread thinly across two rooms instead of three, and was heavily dominated by been-there-seen-that costumes and drug store decorations.

Even the “party” part of the IHCPS seemed to be missing. In the past, yet another hall was occupied by general party items, not Halloween themed. Though a little tame for my taste, I always found one or two cool things to share with you, as well as for my own future use. All in all the IHCPS consumed the entire convention center in prior years.

And sacrilege of sacrilege, this year my beloved “Dark Zone” space was occupied by…I can barely write it…a GOLF show. Oh the humanity!

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Forgive Me, Solomon Kane, For I Once Wrote a Screenplay about You

Forgive Me, Solomon Kane, For I Once Wrote a Screenplay about You

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croatoanThe movie Solomon Kane has gotten released in the U.K., and although it doesn’t have U.S. distribution yet, we will eventually see it on this side of the pond, either in theaters or on DVD. A Solomon Kane movie after so many years of patient waiting is a sword-and-sorcery/Robert E. Howard lover’s dream. But Al Harron at The Cimmerian, who has seen the movie in the U.K., doesn’t have a high opinion of the Howard-side of the results. Although he thinks the film “wasn’t that bad.” His detailed analysis is definitely worth reading, although the spoiler-wary should know that it contains many significant plot details.

I have a personal link to any Solomon Kane film project, and not just because Howard’s puritan adventurer is my favorite of his characters and also the one most suited for the silver screen. It’s mainly because I actually wrote a Solomon Kane screenplay in the mid-‘90s, when I was just out of college, working as an apprentice editor in Warner-Hollywood Studios, and flush with the desire to become a great screenwriter.

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A New Copy of Dhalgren: Caution, BookCrossing

A New Copy of Dhalgren: Caution, BookCrossing

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dhalgrenI bought my first copy of Dhalgren in the late 70s. If memory serves, I accidently dropped it in the sink shortly thereafter.  It swelled up and got sorta lumpy, even after it dried.

A few years ago I decided it was time to get a replacement. Now, I received a review copy of the imposing new trade paperback edition from Vintage Press a while back, with a big blurry red skyscraper on the cover, but what I wanted was the original 1975  Bantam edition (at left), which captured my imagination 35 years ago. Before it sank beneath the suds in our kitchen sink while I was supposed to be washing dishes, anyway.

It takes a while to find a pristine, unread copy of a 35-year old paperback, even on eBay. But before too long I had one, tucked snugly away with my other Samuel R. Delany, and I packed the old one away in the basement.

Except, now I want to read it. No point looking for the one I’d buried in the basement months ago (you’d understand if you saw my basement) — and anyway, who wants to read a book that’s all lumpy? I could read the new one… but man, I paid handsomely to have a pristine copy. Dhalgren is 890 pages — not exactly easy to read when you’re trying not to bend the spine.

So I did what any rational person would do. Back to eBay to find another copy.

This is the kinda thing that drives Alice crazy (Miss “Explain to me why you need a fourth copy??”), but I was very happy when it arrived today. And then I found this hand-written note on the inside cover:

BCID: 361-4144887

Dear Stranger,

If you read this book, please visit bookcrossing.com and say so. This book is traveling from hand to hand – better to be read by many people than to gather dust on a shelf. BookCrossing tracks it so that we readers know where it goes and what others think of it. Just go to the website, enter the BCID above, and leave a brief journal entry (anonymous, if you prefer). Then leave it somewhere to be read again.

Thank you!

Apparently, this thing is legit. The website checks out and everything. I entered my BCID and discovered my new copy of Dhalgren had been read by someone named Vasha and then “released into the wild” in a cafe in Ithaca, New York on August 2, 2006.

It’s hard to describe the delight in Alice’s eyes when she saw this. “You should pass it along!” she exclaimed. “Put it on a park bench or something.”  Get it out of her house, she means. My wife’s sanity depends on defending as much square footage as she can from the encroaching book madness. In her fondest dreams, this process involves a flamethrower.

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Mischief and Starlight: The Fantastical Music of S.J. Tucker

Mischief and Starlight: The Fantastical Music of S.J. Tucker

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witches-pagans21So I said to myself, “Self, let us write a blog about the presence of High Fantasy in Music.”

To which I replied, in my characteristic thought-bubble: “AWESOME! That should be EASY PEASY! …Right?”

Well, I told me direly, we’ll just have to see.

I knew I should avoid scribbling about how music itself has influenced Fantasy literature since time immemorial. After all, that’s been written before, and by people with Ph.D.’s no less, and even if I felt like giving it a go, I’d have to memorize all those ballads about Tam Lin and talk intelligently about Margaret Atwood and Ellen Kushner, and learn Old English; I just couldn’t stir myself to that level of scholarship.

What I wanted to explore is the music of now. What does music right here, right now, today, this moment, have to do with Fantasy as a genre? Is there some kind of movement? Are there professional musicians who make their livings singing about dragons and elves and ghosts and, I dunno, Time Lords – and if so, where can I find them?

Two things immediately came to mind when the words “Fantasy” and “Music” collided. The first was S.J. Tucker. The second, Heavy Metal.

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Short Fiction Beat: Back from the Graveyard

Short Fiction Beat: Back from the Graveyard

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dreamslogoSome periodicals are closing, while others are resurrected. The latest revival is Dreams of Decadence, which will expand beyond its original editorial focus of vampire fiction (and don’t we have enough of that?) to include urban fantasy and paranormal romance. Publisher Warren Lapine last rescued from the dead Realms of Fantasy.

What’s next? Amazing Stories?

Black Gate Magazine Invades Facebook!

Black Gate Magazine Invades Facebook!

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bg-facebookYes indeed, Black Gate has carved out its own slice of Facebook territory and we want our fans on Facebook to stop by and add us to their list of fan pages. It’s bare bones at the moment,  but the boffins at BG HQ have rigged it to post all the updates from this site via networkedblogs. Expect more content in the future of sort Facebook is famous for, such as cuddly kitten youtube videos, Farmville status posts, and updates of what the BG bloggers are doing for lunch . . .

No, never! Expect genre news and links to great stuff happening on the web, conversations among BG’s amazing fans, and all the latest info on Black Gate.

With just the occasional cuddly kitten youtube video.

Goth Chick News: Stalking Danny Torrance

Goth Chick News: Stalking Danny Torrance

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overlook2Last week I happened to catch an episode of Haunted Places on the Travel Channel in which The Stanley Hotel was being profiled.

If you’re not familiar, this is the amazing location in Colorado which was Stephen King’s inspiration for The Shining. His stay there freaked him out so badly that to this day the author claims he’s convinced Mrs. Stanley is still hanging around playing the piano in the drawing room where she dropped dead in 1936.

The 1980 movie The Shining starring Shelley Duvall and Jack Nicholson is definitely in my Top Ten, and in a moment of weirdness (yes, just one moment) I suddenly became obsessed with what happened to the little kid with the famous finger friend “Tony” (remember, it was his finger that kept saying the unforgettable “REDRUM,” which is “murder” spelled backwards).

The documentary footage that came with the anniversary edition of the DVD shows director Stanley Kubrick as highly protective of little Danny Lloyd during filming. So much so that an interview with the six-year-old clearly indicates he was unaware he was shooting a horror movie at all, and instead thought it was some sort of action or mystery story.

redrum2IMDB.com said very little about Danny, who virtually disappeared after his iconic role, acting only once more in 1982.

He would be 35 years old now, and according to the web site is currently a college professor who in 1999 was somewhere in the Midwest, in 2007 was in Elizabethtown, KY, and then moved on to a college in Missouri.

I hate to admit this, but I am an expert cyber-stalker.

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